I Will Follow You into the Dark
by sekai no yakusoku
Summary: Before the end, there had to be the beginning. And between those two, well, one can only suppose there was a middle somewhere in there too. [RaexRob]


Sorry **Glass**, **Hush**, and **Without You** are taking so long. I've been having some troubles, but here's a vaguely okay one-shot to tie you over til then, yes?

Post-_Prophecy_...I was thinking about how Robin chose to go after her during 'the end' three-part, how no matter what ship you ship, it wasn't Cyborg and it wasn't Starfire and it wasn't Beast Boy. It was Robin and listening to this song I wondered if the bonded birds maybe made some kind of promise or shared a moment that led him to his firm resolve to go after her rather than sending anyone else.

You can tell what song this is probably inspired by. I would've interspersed lyrics but I know that's not allowed so I'll just call it by name. Let me know what you think. Thanks very much.

* * *

"**I Will Follow You into the Dark"**

* * *

He hated how she wouldn't look at him...she who feared nothing. 

How he hated it.

She stood with her back to him and it was the very deepest of nights as the wind whipped like razors across their distance from each other. It cut cold and clear, making her cloak billow out behind her and he couldn't help but ponder how curiously like wide, black wings it looked...held up by the wind's howl.

"Why are you still here?" she asked and her voice was so much colder than the air, but he knew her better than to let her off with just that.

"You know," he said, but made no move to get closer. She was on the edge. He was at the center...spiraling out to her in every way but the kind that could be seen with the eyes. And he knew she felt it, as his emotions roared loud in his ears and pulsed strong through their bond, more 'hot and bothered' than fit the phrase. "Why are you doing this? We haven't given up on you Raven."

She began to pace the edge of the T shaped tower, prowling like a superstitious cat under the light of a wavering crescent.

"I didn't ask you to believe in me," she said, clearly vexed even though her face was still turned from him. He shook his head, running a hand through his jet black hair. The gel was surprisingly absent today, very out of character, very...not the boy wonder.

But he didn't feel like being the boy wonder today...tonight.

Tonight he wanted to be human, human to remind someone else how human she was too...regardless of the dark she hailed from.

"You don't like asking," he said smartly, some of his casual nature slipping forth. He knew she was arching a brow at him even though she still would not face him.

"True enough," she conceded, and Robin felt the first wave of encouragement since three hours ago—when he'd first followed her up the stairs, out the door, and onto the roof...into the dark, for it was well past the midnight.

"Raven," he began and took a few steps toward her pacing figure. She stopped suddenly, as if poised to jump. He didn't doubt she might do it just to try and scare him. She had a rather wicked sense of humor, if ever he knew one. Probably she could give Bruce a run for his money...and that was actually saying something, all things considered.

"What?" she asked as was customary.

"Don't move," he said and closed the gap to stand less than half an inch behind her, placing his hands gently on her shoulders. The wind caused her cloak to brush against him slightly.

"Robin, I—" she started.

"Richard," he said and her eyes widened and now he could see this as he leaned over her shoulder to peer curiously at her. "You already knew my name from the trip into my mind. I don't know what's so surprising to you," he mocked with a generous smile that didn't fit in with the night, but she accepted it anyway.

"I'm not surprised at your name. It suits you. I don't understand though Ro-...Richard. Why?" she queried, finally turning to meet his gaze with those bold, amethyst orbs of hers, the kind so many might drown in if they looked too long or too hard.

"I want you to talk to me tonight, me," he emphasized and dared to drop his hands from her shoulders only to circle his arms around her waist. Her breath hitched but with the wind's dull purr it was a little hard to notice. But he noticed.

"I don't want to talk," she said, doing her best to put out of her mind their closeness and the foreign way he held her. Was he trying to trick her? And if so, trick her into what? The empath felt her mind spin and her heart took hands with it.

"Then I'll talk," he said and she felt his smile more than she saw it. "You tell me you're destined to do terrible things. You tell me there's no way to stop what is meant to be, what is to come. You say there's no way out." He paused, enthralled with the way the wind was swirling her fragrance all over him like waves of affection, scented like vanilla and something else unnamed. She tried to pull away and that jerked him back to attention, rather unfairly in his private opinion as she slipped out of his embrace.

"And now you'll tell me how you'll change it, how you can stop it, how I can stop it, right Robin? Right, Richard?" she asked, voice cracking like broken glass. "Well that's not it, my fearless leader. That's not it. You don't know what I know, haven't seen what I see every night." She halted suddenly in her angered rant, eyes on fire and hair now dancing wildly in the wind, cloak still doing that great wing-imitation behind her petite frame.

"I wasn't going to say that," he said, no challenge, no debate, just a statement.

"It doesn't matter," she turned away from him again.

"Why not?" he asked, some of him feeling too wistful, the other parts of him feeling so close he couldn't back out now from what might be the first real truth he could garner from his fellow resident bird.

"I'm dark, all I am. It is me, where I come from, and where I will go. Nothing can stop it Robin...Richard...and...it doesn't matter what you weren't going to say because..." she stopped and he swore he could hear her voice shaking like tears.

"Rae," he slipped into his nickname for her he'd never actually called her, but thought of for her, and stepped closer to place a hand on her arm.

"...because I'm scared." She admitted it. He almost didn't believe it but then, hadn't that been what he came out there for tonight?

Maybe, maybe not.

"It's okay," he said and pulled her into his arms, urging her to lean her cheek against his chest. She could feel his voice's vibrations through his sternum, a lulling vibration of a leader's timbre...of course. Barely, she refrained from rolling her eyes at how well he suited his profession and position.

"I'm not afraid of him, but...it's so dark there," she shuddered and here was her human part...the one he'd hoped to speak with tonight...not the cool, sarcastic though clever young woman. Here was vulnerability, and here was honesty.

Here was Raven as he knew her in his heart. He held her closer to him, barely possible.

"I'll follow you," he whispered into her hair. "Don't worry," he said, all gentleness.

"What?" she asked, word muffled as her face, now wet with quiet, hot tears was still pressed against him. He released his grip on her slightly to pull back far enough to tilt her chin up so their eyes could meet. She opened her lips to say something else but her words dissipated as she felt him press a soft, warm kiss to her temple. Her eyes fluttered shut and she felt his lips move from her temple to placing patient butterfly kisses on her eyelids, his warm breath fanning her eyelashes. Afraid all over again but now for an entirely different reason, she opened her eyes again, leaning her forehead against his like lovers might—even though they were only friends of course.

Only friends, bonded souls...and so on. And they told themselves this was platonic comfort...for now anyway.

"What?" she repeated her earlier question, world swimming. He brushed her cheek with a satin smooth touch of his fingers and she marveled at their softness, knowing well how many a villain had been taken out by that same hand. "Come on Richard, speak up," she cajoled him in the quietest of tones.

"I will follow you into the dark," he said in a normal volume and standing on her toes, his female counterpart pressed a kiss to his temple. She had no words left. As her lips lingered on his skin, his smile became almost bashful and it was apparent that it didn't matter.

There was simply no more need for words.

* * *

A quick and little one-shot, I know. I'm sorry, but was it alright? 

-Rei, hoping to get to the other stories within the next week once finals cease trying to murder her


End file.
